Puerto Rico's Rich History
Puerto Rico, Hannah Pool, and Zora's Place
“The moment I decided I wanted to become a host for NBN was one of sheer procrastination: I was supposed to write a review for a journal on a book I did not fully enjoy and struggled with. I wondered whether I could ask the author questions to understand why they had come to their conclusions. In that moment, instead of continuing with my review, I wrote an email to the New Books Network asking how it would be possible to become a host.”
-Hannah Pool
In this week’s newsletter:
3 Episodes On: Puerto Rico
Meet a Host: Hannah Pool
Bookstore Spotlight: Zora’s Place
3 Episodes On: Puerto Rico
This week, dive into 3 interviews with scholars who have written about Puerto Rico! We highlight conversations with anthropologist Jorge Duany, historian Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, and philosopher Rocío Zambrana.
In the second edition of Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know, Jorge Duany unravels the fascinating and turbulent past and present of an island that is politically and economically tied to the United States, yet culturally distinct.
Jorell Meléndez-Badillo’s book, Puerto Rico: A National History, is an engaging, sometimes personal, and consistently surprising history of colonialism, revolt, and the creation of a national identity, offering new perspectives not only on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean but on the United States and the Atlantic world more broadly.
What can debt reveal to us about coloniality and its undoing? In Colonial Debts: The Case of Puerto Rico, Rocío Zambrana theorizes the way debt has been used as a form of control in Puerto Rico, producing profit from death on the island.
Meet A Host: Hannah Pool
Hannah Pool researches human mobility around the world. Her book The Game: The Economy of Undocumented Migration from Afghanistan to Europe was published with Oxford University Press this summer!
Q: Can you briefly introduce yourself including your areas of academic interest?
A: I'm interested in human mobility, the reasons why people choose, or choose not, to move to a different place, and the ways they achieve this. In recent years, I've been thinking more and more about how climate change affects mobility patterns around the world. I am drawn to mobility patterns because I myself move frequently for my research and thus multi-sited ethnographies have been my method of choice.
Q: What channels do you contribute to?
A: I mainly contribute to World Affairs, Environmental Studies, and Critical Theory.
Q: How did you first hear about the New Books Network?
A: I've always read, and I've always listened to the radio. Hence, it was a very natural process to discover the New Books Network. I also love to create small syllabi for myself and my friends around topics. When I go somewhere new, I arrange long lists of book podcasts and radio shows on a certain theme. Here, the New Books Network comes in so handy. Listening to authors discuss their works while being in a place, whether learning about its history and economy, watching a theater play, or engaging with the local politics is simply fantastic through the narration of deeply researched books.
Q: What made you want to be a host for NBN?
A: The moment I decided I wanted to become a host for NBN was one of sheer procrastination: I was supposed to write a review for a journal on a book I did not fully enjoy and struggled with. I wondered whether I could ask the author questions to understand why they had come to their conclusions. In that moment, instead of continuing with my review, I wrote an email to the New Books Network asking how it would be possible to become a host.
Interested in hosting? Learn more here
Q: What do you enjoy most about being an NBN host?
A: Each book has found its way to me almost magically, sometimes through an author I’ve followed for years, other times by stumbling upon a title on a publisher’s website or newsletter, or even through a conversation with friends that sparks a search and leads me to a new publication. I feel a thrill every time I enter the ISBN number to see if someone else has already hosted a session with that author. And when the author agrees to an interview, my heart skips a beat. Receiving the book is another moment of joy: I take out my pens and begin reading, imagining how our conversation might unfold. The notes I scribble in the margins become questions I can bring directly to the author. There’s something beautiful about knowing that my questions can turn into a dialogue with the very person who created those words.
Q: Other than your own, what has been your favorite episode or channel to listen to?
A: One of my favorite episodes was listening to Paul Bjerk interviewing Julie MacArthur on her book Dedan Kimathi on Trial: Colonial Justice and Popular Memory in Kenya’s Mau Mau Rebellion. I listened to this podcast while I was in Kenya myself and visited the town of Nyeri, where much of Julie’s research had taken place. I was absolutely absorbed, learning about the historical archives, the serendipity that shapes us as researchers, and how history continues to influence contemporary politics.
Q: What advice would you give to anyone interested in becoming a host at NBN?
A: Just do it! Be respectful, coherent, and embrace the steep learning curve, as every new podcast episode will be better than the last. And enjoy the post-production conversations with the authors; they often extend the interview far beyond its formal ending.
Q: Any book recommendations for our readers?
A: Whenever I wonder whether reading and writing books truly matter, I return to Azar Nafisi's beautiful Reading Lolita in Tehran and her recent Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times, as well as Nadya Tolokonnikova's Read and Riot, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Igiaba Scego’s Cassandra in Mogadishu. All of these works reveal the immense power in putting our thoughts into words- so that, in the near or distant future, they may be read, absorbed, and acted upon by others.
Listen to Hannah’s recent NBN interview about her book The Game: The Economy of Undocumented Migration from Afghanistan to Europe here!
Bookstore Spotlight: Zora’s Place
L’Oreal Thompson Payton is an award-winning journalist, author, speaker, and founder of Zora’s Place, a Black feminist bookstore and community hub in Evanston, Illinois. She is the author of Stop Waiting for Perfect, the highly-anticipated memoir Infertile Black Girl (Beacon Press, Spring 2027), and the forthcoming children’s books Amanda Gorman: Poet and Activist (December 2025) and Violet Goes Voting (September 2026). With nearly 20 years of experience writing and editing for outlets including Fortune, Essence, and SELF, her work centers on affirming Black women and encouraging ambitious women to pursue their dreams without apology. Learn more at her website.
Zora’s Place is more than a bookstore—it’s a sanctuary for Black stories, sisterhood, and self-care. As Evanston’s first Black woman-owned feminist bookstore, Zora’s Place centers the voices of Black women and femmes across literature, wellness, and community.
Q: Can you tell us about yourself, and what motivated you to open a bookstore?
A: Like many authors, I’ve dreamt about opening a bookstore for as long as I can remember. That dream started to take shape when I visited Cafe con Libros, an intersectional feminist bookstore and coffee shop in Brooklyn during a book crawl with my book club friends.
At the time, I was envisioning a three-story brownstone as a bookstore, coffee shop, co-working/event space and yoga studio; however, I put it off as a retirement dream I’d get to “some day.”
Well, some day came in the spring/summer of 2025 when Zora’s Place started to take shape in my head. I teach yoga at The AUX Wellness Collective and noticed they had an open retail space. I shared my idea of a Black feminist bookstore with the owner, Tiffini, and the rest was history.
We launched a crowdfunding campaign back in June and raised more than $11,000, which enabled us to fully open in late September.
Q: Why did you choose Evanston, and the Aux Wellness Collective as the location for Zora’s Place?
A: My husband and I moved to Evanston with our daughter in spring 2022 after about a decade of living in Chicago. It’s a great place to raise a family and we love the diversity and progressive values (plus the proximity to the beach and a world-class city like Chicago are an added bonus!).
I was so excited when Call & Response Books in Hyde Park opened as it reminded me of Cafe con Libros, but admittedly I wanted the same experience in my own backyard. There are Black people in Evanston and on the North Shore, too! We don’t always want to drive 45 minutes or more to support other Black-owned businesses.
Plus I noticed there wasn’t currently a Black-owned or Black woman-owned bookstore in Evanston and I very much live by that motto of “be the change you want to see.” As an author, I knew I was uniquely positioned to bring my dream of a Black feminist bookstore to life.
The AUX Wellness Collective just makes sense given their commitment to prioritizing the physical, mental, financial and overall wellbeing of all people, but especially Black people. Our tagline at Zora’s Place is “Read. Rest. Resist,” which fits the philosophy at The AUX as well.
Q: What is the mission of your bookstore? And what makes this store unique?
A: Our mission to cultivate a vibrant space that centers Black women and femmes through literature, community, and wellness. We exist to amplify underrepresented voices, nourish our collective imagination, and remind you that you are not alone in your story.
What makes us unique is that we are Evanston’s only Black woman-owned bookstore and we specialize in Black women writers. Another aspect that makes us unique is that we are housed within a wellness collective that includes mental health therapists, massage therapists, and fitness classes.
Q: Zora’s Place opened in September! What has been the most exciting thing about this process? And are there any challenges you’d like to share?
A: The most exciting part has definitely been meeting members of our community—from the little kids to our elderly neighbors and everyone in between. It honestly melts my heart when an older woman who could be my grandmother thanks me for creating this space. It makes me want to cry because I can imagine what this space means to them and it’s an honor I do not take lightly.
It’s also been exciting building this space with my family and friends. My husband has been not only an incredible life partner, but business partner as well. Our daughter loves going to the bookstore and being a junior bookseller. It’s definitely brought all of us closer.
And perhaps the most challenging aspect has been the steep learning curve. As an author, I know about one side of the publishing industry, but this is a whole different beast! Thankfully I’ve had fellow booksellers and friends who’ve generously poured into me—answering all of my newbie bookseller questions and being super patient with me. I’m so grateful for their guidance and friendship, otherwise I would be SUPER lost!
Q: How do you see bookstores as an important part of a community?
A: As an avid reader, I love bookstores, indie bookstores in particular. I also love libraries and I feel like in this particular administration, both of those treasured institutions are under attack. Bookstores, and perhaps even more so libraries, are not just vital parts of a community—they are community. They’re places where you can gather with people; learn something new; try something you may not have tried before. They are a wealth of not only information, but experiences.
Q: What kinds of events do you host at your bookstore? Anything coming up we can share with our readers?
A: So far, we’ve hosted family storytime; author talks and a Sip & Shop. This weekend we’re hosting a write-in for local writers to come in and work on their works in progress. Next week, we’re hosting a co-working event for remote workers and freelancers.
In the future, we plan to host open mic nights, game nights, and so much more. You can always keep up with our events here
Q: What are your top 5 book recommendations at the moment?
A: My top 5 book recommendations at the moment are:
Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley
Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan (and the whole Skyland Series, honestly!)
Less Is Liberation: Finding Freedom from a Life of Overwhelm by Christine Platt
Full of Myself: Black Womanhood and the Journey to Self-Possession by Austin Channing Brown
It’s Me They Follow by Jeannine A. Cook
Check out Zora’s Place next time you’re in Evanston, and say hi to L’Oreal!
Do you have a favorite independent bookstore that you’d like to see in our newsletter? Let us know!